My thoughts on Skiploading (so far)

Skiploading is a precontest method of basically loading early and spilling over and then returning to your normal diet for a few days to let the water leave.

I've repeated this about 4 times now and I'm still trying to get it down. So with that said, I don't consider myself anywhere near an expert on this method - or even that experienced with it.

Overall, I think it works pretty well. I haven't been able to just stop my training after a load so I haven't seen myself dry and as full as I could be but it seems like 3 days after the load the water is completely gone.

I know Skip doesn't count his carbs on this method but I've been keeping it around 1200 just to be consistent. I learned early that getting them all from things like low fat pop tarts and fat free fig newtons left me hungry!

So I think of mix of junk and clean foods is best. I like to start with junk and then switch to clean foods in the evening before bed. By that time, I'm sick of them anyway.

Something I've noticed is that I never get the "insulin coma" that I would sometimes get on a cheat day precontest. It seems like the days between each load with zero carbs keeps my VERY insulin sensitive.

I'd like to experiment with using glucose disposal agents on this protocol. Right now I'm tinkering with the water amounts.

I love this!

Antioxidants - Eat Your Beans!

Below is a list of the foods with the highest anti-oxidants.

I was totally unaware that beans ruled this category. You always hear about berries but nothing about beans.

1
Small Red Bean (dried)
Half cup
13727

2
Wild blueberry
1 cup
13427

3
Red kidney bean (dried)
Half cup
13259

4
Pinto bean
Half cup
11864

5
Blueberry (cultivated)
1 cup
9019

6
Cranberry
1 cup (whole)
8983

7
Artichoke (cooked)
1 cup (hearts)
7904

8
Blackberry
1 cup
7701

9
Dried Prune
Half cup
7291

10
Raspberry
1 cup
6058

11
Strawberry
1 cup
5938

12
Red Delicious apple
One
5900

13
Granny Smith apple
One
5381

14
Pecan
1 ounce
5095

15
Sweet cherry
1 cup
4873

16
Black plum
One
4844

17
Russet potato (cooked)
One
4649

18
Black bean (dried)
Half cup
4181

19
Plum
One
4118

20
Gala apple
One
3903

Gratitude

As cheesy as it sounds, I've really found the old "Count your blessings" thing to work.

I start of each day thanking god for my health and this opportunity to succeed among all the little joys that appeared the day before. It puts me in the right state of mind. I start to look for the good things in life instead of constantly focusing on the bad things.

If you get into the habit of doing this. You start to realize just how good you have it.

I also conclude each day thanking God for all he's given me. There is never a day that goes by without something happening I am thankful for.

So are you appreciating all that you have?

The Density of Foods in America

So I'm on a zero carb diet where I refeed every 3-4 days. On these days, I'm eating 1000g+ of carbohydrates with minimal fat and very controlled protein. As such, insulin is sky high all day so it doesn't really matter where the carbohydrates come from as long as they're low fat.

So I went out and got things like Fat Free Fig Newtons and Low Fat Pop Tarts.

The problem with that is it only takes about fig newtons to eat 100g of carbs.

I was ending up hungry on my high days!

My new favorite foods on these days are pretty much the typical bodybuilding foods now (rice cakes, oatmeal etc.)

Don't get me wrong, the fat free ice cream I've discovered is AMAZING.

But the point is it's no wonder America is fat and was still fat when the low fat craze in the 90's was going on. The get rid of the fat in pop tarts but then add more sugars to make up for it.

People don't have any clue just how much they're putting away.

I've talked to many people that have 4 or 5 pop tarts for breakfast and think nothing of it.

That's 160-200g of carbs (mostly from sugar) and 28-35g of fat (including trans fat).

Check out this bad boy:

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Nutrition/product.aspx?Category=Beverages&id=BV273

How many customers (*coughVICTIMS*cough) do you think look up the nutrition facts before they go eat that?

Look into Volumetrics people!

Deleted

The Final Word on Nutrition

I found this on a message board and thought it was quite funny.

THE FINAL WORD ON NUTRITION


After an extensive review of all the research literature I could lay my hands on, here’s my final word on nutrition and health.:

1. Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
2. Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
3. Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
4. Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.
5. Even the Germans, who drink beer and eat lots of sausages and fats, suffer fewer heart attacks than we do.
6. The French indulge in foie-gras, full fat cheese and drink red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than us.

My advice is: Eat and drink what you like. It seems to me that it’s the speaking of English that is the killer.

Visualization

During my entire contest prep, I would visualize every workout before doing it. I would see myself succeeding on every rep and every set and mentally plan the whole workout.

It got me excited and gave me a clear, defined goal that I wanted to accomplish during each workout.

After a while though, I felt a little burnt out and decided to just go train.

I've recently reverted back to visualizing the workout and I believe it has helped immensely.

Some things I've noticed are an increased ability to focus and greater intensity and confidence. It's like I've already done it.

I also reminds myself of my goals for the workout and for the year before going to train.

Today, it made for a good leg day.